Monday 16 August 2010

Junior Spies

It's good to see the BBC wheel out their fakecharity fakenews story template for one its increasingly rare outings.

More than 100 children a week are contacting the ChildLine helpline with worries about their parents' drinking or drug use, according to the NSPCC... Two-thirds of those callers had mentioned their parents' drinking...

Although concerns about parental drug and alcohol abuse made up only a small percentage of them, the head of ChildLine, Sue Minto, said: "The fall-out from parental drug and alcohol abuse is a ticking timebomb in many children's lives. It's vital these children are helped before lasting damage occurs."

Thirty-five per cent of those had reported suffering physical abuse, which was more than three times the rate among other children who called. Twenty per cent mentioned issues with family conflicts, while 10% spoke of sexual abuse.


It's not like old times though.

Although the NSPCC is clearly a fakecharity, they/the BBC couldn't organise a couple of rent-a-quotes from other fakecharities to pad out the article at the bottom (yes, Don Shenker of Alcohol Concern, that means you).

Drinkaware is not a fakecharity, it's organised by drinks manufacturers to coordinate their counter-propaganda, And the article does not end with a spokesperson from the relevant government department agreeing that 'more must be done'.

3 comments:

Bayard said...

"while 10% spoke of sexual abuse."

In what context, may I ask? When asked about it, they denied it happened in their family?
Classic journalistic weasel words (though I think that's being unkind to weasels). They obviously didn't say they'd been sexually abused or the article would have said so. More something from nothing.

Rich Tee said...

They didn't bother contacting the obvious source, the award-winning National Association for Children of Alcoholics.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, exactly. Can't blame the BBC for this, they just repeat the NSPCC crap.

TM, that's brilliant! I must get my kids signed up to that.